This research will complete the development of a planning methodology for the design and evaluation of both proposed and existing systems for providing medical care to outpatients. Affirmative plans for communicating the completed methodology to health administrators, consultants and health systems analysts, are a part of the research. This methodology will be developed by an interdisciplinary team consisting of health administrators, public health professionals, medical sociologists, industrial engineers and operations researchers. Although the methodology will be developed in an academic environment, data will be collected, studies will be conducted, and the results will be validated by using actual outpatient facilities which operate in different environments; a hospital emergency room (with a holding unit) located near a target neighborhood area, a community medical care program with a high degree of neighborhood control, and a prepaid university health service. A hospital outpatient department, a hospital satellite clinic in a low-cost housing development, and a newly developed rural outpatient medical facility are also available, if needed for the purposes of validating and testing the methodology. To enhance its usefulness, the final methodology will be contained in a design and evaluation manual that will make our results conveniently available and palatable to health systems planners and decision makers. The manual and teaching materials for a short course for health planners and administrators and a tutorial for management systems consultants will be prepared, pretested, and refined as part of the research program.